Coolness

Last week I was lazy about getting up in the mornings to run and the heat made me even lazier in the evenings. I started a knitting project down in the nice cool basement one night.

Saturday morning I got up at regular work time and ran out the door for a 47 minute jog around the neighbourhood at 6:30 a.m. It was already warm, but I got it done.

Then I headed off to the Ironman Calgary 70.3 expo to work at the information booth. I should not have chosen that volunteer job, as I know next to nothing about how the logistics of a major triathlon work, and there was not much background info provided to volunteers. I deferred questions to the more knowledgeable Tricops guys when I could, and chatted with the nice track athlete sitting next to us in the Athletics Alberta booth.

I learned that having two transition zones in a brand new point-to-point race made things quite complicated, Tricops is a very cool organization, and young 400m hurdlers think 5k is a long run.

Sunday morning I got up bright and early again, and headed out to my volunteer post as a bike course marshal at Lower Springbank Road and Range Road 31. That’s a story I will tell you about some other time.

A big, hailing thunderstorm on Sunday night cooled down my world wonderfully, and Monday I had the day off. I went out for a late-morning run, merrily bounding over trails near my home in the rain-scented air. The cool breeze was very refreshing, despite the humidity.

I saw a curious coyote in one park and took a 30 second saskatoon-munching break in another. On the hot Saturday it had been a struggle to drag myself through a 47 minute run. Monday’s coolness buoyed me up to 67 minutes of running bliss. What a difference a few degrees can make!